Two Atlantans finalists for Townsend Prize for Fiction

February 2016

Atlanta writers Soniah Kamal and Reetika Khanna Nijhawan have been chosen to be among the ten finalists for the 2016 Townsend Prize for Fiction.

The Georgia Center for the Book, Georgia Perimeter College, and The Chattahoochee Review selected Soniah’s debut novel, An Isolated Incident, and Reetika’s short story collection, Kismetwali ​and Other Stories. The biennial Prize of $2,000 and a silver commemorative tray will be awarded to “an outstanding novel or short-story collection published by a Georgia writer residing in the state during that biennium” on April 28 at the Old Courthouse on the Square in Decatur, Georgia.

Created in 1981, the Prize was named for Jim Townsend, founding editor of Atlanta Magazine, and an early mentor to such Georgia writers as Pat Conroy, Terry Kay, and Anne Rivers Siddons. Previous winners of the Townsend Prize include Kathryn Stockett for The Help and Alice Walker for The Color Purple.